Orbea has completely redesigned its Occam trail bike, boosting travel, geometry figures and updating the suspension's kinematics to better suit trail riders.
Its MyO program also allows customers to have a completely unique paintjob for no extra cost, while componentry can also be swapped out to suit individual tastes. Take full advantage of the program and you can rest assured that you'll have a completely unique bike.
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The previous generation Occam had two versions: a 650b Occam AM with 150mm of travel and the Occam TR, a 130mm 29er. With the introduction of the 29in Rallon enduro bike, with 160/150mm of travel, and the Oiz XC bike, which had a more trail orientated build available with 120mm of travel up front, Orbea decided to consolidate the Occam into a pure trail bike, with 140mm of travel and 29in wheels.
This follows what Orbea felt was the general trend in mountain biking over the past couple of years. Cross-country is getting gnarlier (hence the Oiz TR), and the Rallon was more successful than it imagined it would be.
The Occam could, therefore, focus on what a trail bike really needs to be: capable up the climbs and very capable back down, too.
Early developments of the new bike included the 'R-Occam', which took the Occam's front triangle and bolted in the Rallon's rear, with an angle-set to fine-tune the shape. This alloy mule let Orbea test various set-ups.
Future developments included the use of its own 3D printers and testing facilities to help get the new bike dialled as quickly as possible.
Orbea Occam frameset details
It's 2019, so you shouldn't be surprised that the new Occam has a relatively long, low and slack frame. The key figures for a size Large with 140mm forks are listed below.
Speccing a 150mm bike slackens the bike's head and seat tube angles by around 0.5 degrees and lifts the bottom bracket a touch.
- Reach: 474mm (S –425mm, M – 450mm, XL – 500mm)
- Seat tube: 457mm (S – 381mm, M – 419mm, XL – 508mm)
- Head angle: 66 degrees
- Seat angle: 77 degrees
- Stack: 627mm
- Wheelbase: 1,224mm
- Chainstay length: 440mm
- Head tube: 120mm
- Bottom bracket height: 336mm
The changes give frames that are almost one size longer in reach, yet with a seat tube roughly one size smaller for a given frame.
This is definitely in line with where the market is heading: longer bikes are better suited to more aggressive riders and shorter seat tubes allow for longer dropper posts — and rarely have much significant downside.
Furthermore, Orbea says that the steeper seat tubes have been put in place to help with more technical climbing.
As you'll notice, Orbea has opted for an asymmetric frame design with a spar joining seat and down tubes. This is to ensure frame stiffness was where Orbea wanted it to be.
It claims it's not too stiff, nor too bendy, and that it benchmarked it against other competitor bikes. Without the asymmetric link, the seat tube would have had to have been more curved towards the centre of the frame to get the necessary support for the rocker's main link. This would then have an impact on the effective seat tube angle, especially for taller riders.
Adding the link meant it was able to maintain the geometry it was hoping for, while also adding a bit of stiffness, and only 100g to the overall weight.
Having the link joining the down and seat tubes together (rather than top and seat tube) means easier access to the shock's controls too, apparently. In order to fit a bottle, the cage bosses are offset by 10mm to the left. The rocker link itself has received a fair amount of engineering. The two sides are joined like a splined crank.
Orbea will be offering both carbon and alloy options of the bike. The carbon version has a monocoque front triangle, along with one-piece seatstays and two-piece chainstays. By minimising the number of joints in the frame, Orbea claims to reduce the resin content and therefore weight, and improve the efficiency of its construction.
The medium carbon frame has a claimed weight of 2.3kg (without a shock, but painted). Orbea is also offering a lifetime warranty on the frame, with no riding quibbles.
The hydroformed alloy frame has a highly polished finish. This not only looks better but also reduces the number of stress-risers, so performs better in fatigue testing, according to Orbea.
Finishing off the frame package is a rubberised chainstay protector, with waves along its length to reduce chain noise. There is also a threaded bottom bracket, Enduro Max bearings and internal cable routing designed to minimise noise and wear.
Orbea Occam suspension
The 140mm of suspension is built around what Orbea calls its Concentric Boost platform. This is a four-bar system with the rearmost pivot placed around the rear axle.
What's neat is that the rear wheel's axle effectively holds the rear triangle together. Remove it and the seat and chainstays can part, giving easy access to bearing swaps, as well as tool-free rear hanger replacement (the rear hanger has a finger-operated lock-ring, and keeps the seat and chainstays together when the axle is removed).
Looking at its range as a whole, Orbea decided that the Occam now has a narrower customer profile and this has allowed it to give a more 'specialised' suspension feel.
The suspension is now much more progressive through its stroke to give the supple early, supportive mid and 'safe' end of stroke that's so often asked for in a trail bike.
With higher leverage ratios on the shock through the linkage, the Occam runs on lower shock pressures, which Orbea says reduces friction and therefore improves feel.
The Fox DPX2 and DPS shocks come with a 0.2cc volume spacer fitted as standard, but the bike arrives with a 0.4cc spacer for more aggressive riders, and Orbea says the bike will also perform nicely without any spacers if you're into the more 'XC' aspect of trail riding.
Finally, Orbea has increased the anti-squat figures on this single-ring only bike to give a more stable pedalling platform and reduced the anti-rise figures, meaning the bike remains more active under braking — which is helped by placing the brake caliper on the seatstays.
Orbea MyO program
Orbea's MyO program gives a multitude of customisation options for higher level models in its lineup.
Orbea has long offered the opportunity to alter the spec on your bike; for example, the bikes we rode had a 150mm Fox 36 plugged in up front, rather than the stock 140mm 34 fork.
It's also possible to change things such as stem length and bar width, alter the tyre choice, brakes and shock too. These have an at-cost upcharge and the bikes are effectively built to order at Orbea's own facilities.
The more 'exciting' aspect of MyO is the ability to change the colour of the frame, with no additional cost.
On its site, there's a 'builder' function that gives you various colour options for a range of the frame's design. These include the main frame colour, the secondary frame colour, the Orbea logo and Occam logo, and a couple of other small touches.
On top of this, you can also have your name (or any other phrase) put on the seatstays. While the Occam page wasn't live while we wrote this, we did some quick maths with the Rallon's MyO builder and reckon on colours alone there are just over 31 million options.
Orbea Occam 2020 model specs and pricing
Orbea is offering eight models of the Occam: four carbon, four alloy, all eligible for the MyO program.
Orbea Occam M-LTD
- £6,599 / €7,599 / $7,999
This top-end model comes with the carbon frame, Fox Factory 150mm 36 fork and DPX2 shock, a Shimano XTR groupset with RaceFace Next R chainset and XTR brakes. DT Swiss' XMC 1200 Spline carbon wheels are shod in 2.5in Maxxis High Roller II tyres.
Orbea Occam M10
- £4,399 / €4,999 / $5,499
This bike comes with a 140mm Fox 34 and DPX2 shock, both Factory level. There's a Shimano XT groupset and brakes, with a RaceFace finishing kit. The wheels are a set of DT Swiss XM 1650, which are custom made for Orbea — effectively the rim from the XM 1501 wheelset with a slightly cheaper hub.
Orbea Occam M30-Eagle
- £3,299 / €3,799 / $3,999
Factory is replaced by Performance level suspension on this version, and it's a DPS shock rather than DPX2, while there's a SRAM NX Eagle groupset combined with Shimano BR520 brakes. DT Swiss M1900 Spline wheels support the same High Roller II tyres as above.
Orbea Occam M30
- £3,299 / €3,799 / $3,999
The build of this model is nigh-on identical to the M30-Eagle, but you get a Shimano XT/SLX drivetrain instead.
Orbea Occam H10
- £2,899 / €3,299 / $3,499
The H10 is the top-level alloy Occam for 2020. It comes with Performance level Fox 34 and DPS suspension, DT Swiss M1900 Spline wheels and High Roller II tyres, and an XT/SLX mix 12-speed drivetrain.
Orbea Occam H20
- £2,499 / €2,799 / $2,999
Price savings largely come from the finishing kit and Mach1 Maxx 25c wheels here because you still get a 12-speed Shimano SLX drivetrain.
Orbea Occam H20-Eagle
- £2,499 / €2,799 / $2,999
As you'd expect, this is the same spec as the H20 above, but with a SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain rather than the Shimano kit.
Orbea Occam H30
- £1,999 / €2,299 / $ N/A
The entry-level Occam hits the £2,000 marker but isn't available in the US. Marzocchi's Bomber Z2 keeps the price down, as does the shift to a SunRace 11-51t 12-speed cassette, joining Shimano SLX shifting gear. You also get a lower specced Shimano brake, but many of the components are the same as much higher-level bikes — this looks like great value for money.
